Next Element Gallium. Although zinc compounds have been used for at least 2, years in the production of brass, zinc wasn't recognized as a distinct element until much later.
Metallic zinc was first produced in India sometime in the s by heating the mineral calamine ZnCO 3 with wool. Zinc was rediscovered by Andreas Sigismund Marggraf in by heating calamine with charcoal.
Today, most zinc is produced through the electrolysis of aqueous zinc sulfate ZnSO 4. Roughly one third of all metallic zinc produced today is used in a process known as galvanization. During galvanization, an object that is subject to corrosion, such as an iron nail, is given a protective coating of zinc. But zinc was not as popular as copper or iron, according to a paper in the open-access journal Ancient Asia ; it boils away at a lower temperature than is required to extract it from its ore, so ancient smelting techniques were not up to the task of isolating zinc.
Nevertheless, archaeologists have found a handful of zinc artifacts, including a sheet of zinc from Athens that dates back to B. Today, the metal is used mostly as coating for steel and iron to prevent rusting, a process called galvanization. Incredibly, galvanization dates back centuries — The Royal Armouries of Great Britain include a collection of armor from India made in the s which was galvanized by dipping in molten zinc. Zinc was discovered before it was officially discovered.
In , German chemist Andreas Marggraf also the inventor of a process to extract sugar from beets figured out how to isolate zinc by heating carbon and calamine the stuff in calamine lotion.
Marggraf reported the finding in great detail, which earned him credit for the discovery, even though several European researchers had already completed the same feat.
An English metallurgist, William Champion, had even patented the process years earlier. Even Champion was drawing on techniques dating back to the Middle Ages, however. Zinc was first used in China by at least A. At first, ancient people used zinc ores mostly to make brass an alloy of copper with zinc.
If we estimate this production from 12 th century to 18 th century the quantity of metal would certainly be more than 50, tonnes. Colonel Tod in his well known work, Ann als and Antiquities of Rajasthan, has reported that the mines of Mewar were very productive during the eighteenth century, and in the year of alone the mines earned Rs.
Tod writes that about haifa century ago these mines were earning Rs. Dariba mines yielded Rs. He has recorded these mines as Tin mines of Zawar. Since we do not have any evidence of ancient tin working in Mewar region his tin mines must be nothing but zinc mines of Zawar. Moreover the Imperial Gazetteer of India Provincial Series Rajputana 52 clearly mention that these mines were famous for silver and zinc and were worked on a large scale until when the worst famine took place Kachhawaha, ; Malu, ; Singh, The production of zinc was perhaps very high under the rule of Maharana Jagat Singh and Maharana Raj Singh during 17 th century as the local records of AD and reveal that annual revenue of Zawar was rupees 2,50, and 1,75, respectively.
It is also clearly indicated in the record that per day income of these mines was Rs. Another record belonging to the reign of Maharana Raj Singh, reads that the revenue earned in a year from Zawar was Rs. We are however, not sure whether this income was obtained only from mining and smelting.
As the entire area of Zawar is gorgeous and agriculture may not have been enough to generate revenue, therefore it is likely that the entire revenue was earned from mining and production of zinc.
Erskine also informs that these mines were certainly an important source of income right from fourteenth to early nineteenth century as they yielded more than two lakh rupees annual revenue for Maharana's treasury at least until Thus the annual income from Zawar was quite handsome and it is likely that due to large scale production of zinc Zawar may have become one of the main sources of state revenue and an important trade centre between the 12 th and early 19 th century AD.
The discovery of an earthen pot containing a coin hoard datable to 16 th century by L. Gurjar in Gurjar et al. There are remains of few structures on top of a hillock at Zawar, which, according to knowledgeable villagers, belong to Vela Vania a trader known as Vela. Perhaps Vela Vania was involved in zinc trade. It is worth mentioning here that most of the existing forts, huge water reservoirs, temple complexes, water structures, and other monuments in Mewar were built between 10 th and 18 th centuries AD.
It is likely that the revenue earned due to brisk trade of zinc at Zawar was utilized for construction of these large monuments. Only a few Harappan bronzes have yielded a small percentage of zinc. For example Lothal, a Harappan sites in Gujarat BC Rao, , has yielded around haifa dozen copper based objects containing zinc, which varies from 0.
One of the objects antiquity No. From Kalibangan, another Harappan site in north Rajasthan, a long spear head of copper was found containing 3. There is some evidence of brass from the early Iron Age when we come across two examples from Atranjikhera BC , a Painted Grey Ware culture site in the Ganga doab. One of the objects leaded bronze contains 1. Unless we have more examples of bronzes containing appreciable percentage of zinc replacing tin, arsenic or other elements we can not infer that the Bronze or Early Iron Age cultures were aware of the nature and property of zinc.
Nevertheless these examples perhaps represent the early or experimental stage of zinc in India. The archaeological record indicates that in the second half of the first millennium BC the percentage of zinc started increasing and intentional use of brass appears on the scene. Such evidence has been found from Taxila, Timargarh and Senuwar. Taxila, located about 30 km north of Rawalpindi in Pakistan, has yielded a large variety of metal objects including those of copper, bronze, brass and iron Marshall, Several brass objects datable from the 4 th century BC to 1 st century AD have been discovered.
One of them was a vase from Bhir mound, which predates the arrival of the Greeks at Taxila Biswas, and has assayed It has They must have been made by mixing metallic zinc with copper. Unlike other metals, it comes out in the vapour form from the furnace and gets reoxidised, if it is not condensed. The production of metallic zinc has been traced back to 9 th century AD at Zawar, but there is a strong possibility that the older evidence is buried under the immense heaps.
Though Taxila folks were aware of the distillation process Habib, , yet in the absence of definitive evidence we cannot claim that they employed this process for obtaining zinc.
It is possible, though not proven that metallic zinc was produced at Zawar way back from the 6 th century BC, from here it reached at Taxila and Senuwar. The other possibility is that zinc was scrapped from the cooler parts of the furnaces at both sites!
Besides these, Prakash Athavale and Thapar, table IV and Mahurjhari in Mahararashtra Deo, ; Joshi , Asura sites in Chhotanagpur region Caldwell, ; Roy, have yielded brasses, which have been dated to the second half of the first millennium BC.
This kind of evidence clearly points out they were made by cementation process. Several circular or rectangular punch-marked and other coins of brass,. What is interesting is that most of these coins belong to the regional kings, indicating popularity of brass in India. This kind of evidence goes against the assumption that the Greeks introduced brass in India. The archaeological record clearly points out that the Indians knew brass prior to the arrival of the Greeks. Beside coins, several other brass antiquities have also been reported from the Early Historic sites in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, which include lids, caskets, bangles, finger rings, utensils, icons, chariot and religious object and utensil Biswas, ,.
Since zinc could change the colour of copper and impart it a golden glitter, it was preferred for making Hindu, Buddhist and Jain icons throughout the historical period. For example among the brass icons of the Himalayan region from Tibet to Gandhar lead is present in appreciable amount and the percentage of zinc varies from 4 to 35 Chakrabarti, and Lahiri, ; Reedy, Obviously these brasses were made by selection of ore, cementation process and mixing metallic zinc with copper.
In the absence of a source of zinc in the Himalayan region it may be suggested that metallic zinc may have been supplied from Zawar. The higher percentage of lead in these brasses clearly suggests that it was deliberately added to increase the casting ability of the metal. Such leaded brasses were called kakatundi in ancient India.
The percentage of zinc in such artifacts ranges from 28 to It seems that most of the brasses of his list belong to Medieval and later Medieval times. He saw a magnificent vihara residential complex of Buddhist monks of brass near Nalanda under construction during the reign of Raja Siladitya Harshavardhan AD It would have been more than feet long when completed Beal, vol.
He also noticed brass images teou-shih of Buddhist and Brahmanic deities at several places in northern India Beal, vol. The metal art of Eastern Indian complex, mainly coming from Bihar, West Bengal and Bangladesh, is also fairly well known.
A large number of ancient bronzes, belonging to Pala and Sena School of art datable between 8 th to 12 th centuries AD contain considerable amount of zinc Leoshko and Reedy, ; Pal, ; Reedy, a, b.
A large number of bronzes and brasses mostly icons of Jain and Hindu deities, containing appreciable amount of zinc, have been reported from various parts of Gujarat, and are datable to 6 th to 14 th centuries AD Swarnakamal, In some cases lead is present up to 9.
It is likely that all these brasses were made of using metallic zinc from Zawar. Biswas writes that the icon of seated Tirthankara dated AD from Gujarat is one the finest example of the late medieval brasses in India, which was made a few years before the Maratha invasion of Mewar. Table 3: Elemental percentage of brasses datable to 14 th to 18 th centuries AD after Biswas, and Swarnakamal, Table 3 contains a few brasses from medieval and late medieval period of India, most of which have a high percentage of zinc.
The metallurgists were obviously skilful to produce high quality of brass. It is quite likely that all these brasses were made by using metallic zinc from Zawar. The Mughals, who ruled over India between 12 th and 16 th centuries, had metal karkhanas factories , in which a large number of brasses for example utensil, decorative pieces, guns, mortars and so on were produced perhaps employing zinc from Zawar Neogi, It is held that the artillery made of iron, bronze and brass was introduced in India during the Mughal period.
Large cannons and guns made of brass have been reported from Agra, Bengal and other places Neogi, There are a few brass cannons at Udaipur too, which might have been made by zinc obtained from Zawar. The Bidri Ware of Bidar in South India, belonging to medieval period, is well known for its glossy black surface decorated with exquisite silver inlay art Gairola, It is a zinc alloy decorated with silver or gold inlay.
La Niece and Martin have done detailed technical study of27 vessels of this ware from the Victoria and Albert Museum's collection. Lead isotope studies have indicated that the zinc was not obtained from Zawar for Bidri ware Craddock et al. This kind of result has brought about a challenge to look for other zinc production sites in India, if this metal was not imported from outside!
Ayurvedic treatises such as Susrut Samhita 5 th century BC and Charak Samhita 2 nd century BC record the use of essence of various minerals and metals e.
These texts also mention that the instruments used for curing delicate parts of the body were made of gold, silver, copper, iron, brass, tooth, horn, jewels and of special variety of wood Datt Ram, 12; Sharma, II: Both these texts record brass as riti or ritika. It is interesting that both Charak Samhita and Susruta Samhita refer to pushpanjan, which was prepared by heating a metal in air and was used for curing eyes and wounds Chikitsasthanam This could be identified as zinc oxide as Craddock 27 points out that "no other metal would react in the air to produce an oxide suitable for medicinal purpose".
Therefore, these Ayurvedic texts are perhaps the earliest literary evidence of zinc in India. Kautilya's Arthasastra is one of the earliest firm datable 4 th century BC textual evidence for mining and smelting of metals, which reveals that the director of metals was responsible for establishing factories of various metals such as copper tamra , lead sisa , tin trapu , brass arakuta , bronze kamsa or kamsya , tala and iron Kangle, vol I: 59 and vol II: ; Kangle, vol II: Brass has also been frequently mentioned in ancient Sanskrit and Buddhist literature and was popularly known as harita, riti, ritika, arkuta or arkutah, pitala and so on Chakrabarti and Lahiri, ; Neogi, 41; Sastri, The term kamsakuta of Digha-nikaya and Dhammapada Atthakatha has been interpreted as brass coins by Chatterjee He strongly argues that brass currency was in vogue between 6 th and 4 th century BC in India, though we don't have chemical analysis of known coins of this period.
Darius I, a Persian king, had a few Indian cups, which were indistinguishable in appearance from gold except for their smell Hett, This may only be the Indian brass. Strabo quotes the explanation of Nearchus about India, who traveled the north-western part of this country with the Macedonian army in 4 th century BC, and writes that "they use brass that is cast, and not the kind that is forged; and he does not state the reason, although he mentions the strange result that follows the use of the vessels made of cast brass.
This kind of evidence indicates that Indians were making brass way back in 4 th century BC. But we do not know whether it happened due to absence of lead or high percentage of zinc? The alchemist Nagarjuna is well known for his treatise on alchemy titled Rasaratnakara, which was perhaps originally written, as Biswas , ; Ray, argues, between 2 nd and 4 th century AD and compiled around 7 th or 8 th centuries AD. Nagatjuna was certainly a great scientist, who, for the first time, not only described cementation process but also zinc production by distillation technique Biswas, ; ; Ray This is therefore the earliest literary evidence, which records that brass is an alloy of copper and zinc.
Rasarnavam Rastantram, an alchemical text datable to 12 th century AD, is an important alchemical text, in which both brass and zinc have been recorded. This text clearly records zinc making process Craddock et al, 31; Ray, , besides different kinds of zinc ores e. Apart from these there are a few other alchemical texts such as Rasakalpa, Rasarnavatantra, Rasprakash Sudhakar of Yasodhara, Rasendrachudamani of Somadeva and Rasachintamani of Madanantadeva all datable from 10 th to 12 th centuries AD , also explain different kind of brasses and zinc- making by distillation process Ray, The description by Yasodhara for extraction of zinc appears to be the best one as Craddock et al.
These texts reveal that koshthi type furnaces were used for smelting and had an arrangement of two chambers separated by a perforated plate.
For distillation tiryakpatana yantra were used. The Rasaratnasamuchchaya, a late 13 th or early 14 th century work of iatro chemistry, is the best available literary evidence of zinc production process. In fact the zinc smelting process described by Yasodhara earlier has more or less been repeated in this text besides the illustrations of apparatus by Somadeva.
Bhavamisra in the 16 th century in his well known work, Bhavaprakasanighantu, recorded as many as seven different kinds of alloys upadhatus including bronze and brass Chunekar and Pandey, He has recorded two different kinds of brasses such as Rajariti and Brahmariti.
Besides, two other types of brasses pittala i. Besides these, Allan cites the work of Abu Dulaf, Al-risalat al-thqniya, datable to 9 th th centuries AD, who described production of a variety of tutiya in Iran. He recorded that the Indian tutiya was preferred in Persia Allan, , which obviously might have been better than the Persian one. It is likely that the Persians imported Indian tutiya. The Persians also recorded Indian tutiya as the vapour of tin Allan, 44 , which might be zinc Craddock et al.
Thus the Persian literary source also supports production of zinc in India in 9 th th centuries AD. And brass has surely longer history than zinc. All the aforesaid literary references clearly suggest that metallic zinc was known in India several centuries before the actual dated evidence of commercial production at Zawar. Thus the aforesaid archaeological and literary evidence indicates that Indians had started using zinc rich ores from second millennium BC, though we can not claim that it was intentional.
Of course stray discoveries of brasses have been made from Bronze and Early Iron Age sites, but we can not conclude that it was a common metal. The discovery of coins and other objects indicates that it became popular only in the second half of the first millennium BC. William Champion established a zinc-smelting furnace in AD at Bristol in England and started commercial production in His furnace was quite similar to the Zawar example with downward distillation Day, What is interesting is that Champion used exactly the same technique of distillation per descensum that was used at Zawar and even used 1.
Thus his arrangement of retorts and technique was identical to Zawar. Zinc is as old as the earth's crust and has been used as a component of brass since ancient times. The history of zinc is told from onwards and is still of great importance today.
The Romans under the rule of Emperor Augustus 20 BC to 14 AD were probably the first to melt the raw material for brass coins using a mixture of copper and zinc ore without being aware of it.
It was not until that the Indians realized that zinc was a "new" metal. In ancient Hindu writings from this time, the first descriptions of production processes for zinc metal from ores can be found. In the late 13 th century, Marco Polo describes the production of zinc oxide in Persia. There the oxide was used to treat eye infections. At the beginning of the 17 th century, European scientists such as Albertus Magnus, Georgius Agricola, and Paracelsus also discovered the value of the new metal.
Already in , zinc was extracted on a large scale in Swansea, England. In William Champion built the first zinc smelter in Bristol with an annual capacity of about tons. After the discovery of its rollability, the first zinc rolling mill was built in Belgium in The zinc ore mined there was smelted and rolled on site.
The sheets produced by the pack rolling process were mainly used in the building industry and worked well for roofing, roof drainage, building components, and ornamental ironwork.
When the material properties no longer met Western European quality requirements, pack rolling that had been well established until then was replaced in Germany at the beginning of the s by new, high-tech processes. Despite its long tradition, the comparatively young metal is now being discovered for ever new areas of application. It can be found in high-tech products as well as in telecommunications and aerospace.
As zinc ores are abundant both geologically and geographically, zinc is considered a "raw material with a future," offering sustainability and recyclability.
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